Michelle Obama’s casual slip-out trip to Target is being met with scepticism, as media personalities deride the ‘incognito’ visit as a well-timed PR stunt.
Only last month the First Lady was accused of indulging in luxury holidays worth $10million dollars on the tax payers’ dime.

And barely a week ago the 47-year-old mother-of-two was criticised for wearing $40,000 diamonds to a fund-raising event. (…)

Show the world that she really can do recession chic, Mrs Obama headed to a Target store in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday afternoon.

Secret Service officers reportedly swept the store on Highway 1, thirty minutes before Mrs Obama popped in for her housewives’ essentials- dog food and cleaning products. (…)

Mrs Obama seemed at pains to appear extra down to earth by pushing her own cart and carrying her own shopping bags, examiner.com reported.

Associated Press photographer Charles Dharapak caught a few images of Mrs Obama reaching the check out.

But conservative blogger Michelle Malkin mocked the idea that it was a chance meeting as, ‘snortalicious’.

Malkin blogged: ‘She left the bling at home. But her shirt and sunglasses are about as “incognito” as Lady Gaga’s outfit at her younger sister’s graduation.’

Radio host Rush Limbaugh also denounced the visit on his show as a ‘photo-op’.
He said: ‘It has gotten so bad they had to send Moochelle out there in a Lady Gaga-type getup,’

‘What a phony baloney plastic banana good time rock-and-roller optic photo op this was!’
‘You think the AP has photographers waiting outside stores for Moochelle to show up?” Limbaugh asked. “Who do they think we are?’ (…)

And only on Monday Dharapak had photographed Mrs Obama inside the White House when she made an announcement about womens’ STEM career issues.

Certainly the White House have not so far denied that Dharapak was tipped off. (…)

The trip will be a slap in the face for Target’s biggest competitor Walmart.

As part of her campaign to beat childhood obesity the First Lady has formed a partnership for the Let’s Move! campaign with Walmart, who, unlike Target, have promised to cut down on salt, sugar and fat in their food, the Foodorama blog reported.

Mrs Obama is currently involved in a major fund-raising effort in the run-up to her husband’s re-election campaign.

But she will have to work hard to counter her spendthrift reputation. In August White House sources claimed that the First Lady has spent $10million of U.S. taxpayers’ money on vacations in the past year.

Calling the 47-year-old mother-of-two a ’vacation junkie’ they described her penchant for five-star hotels, where she splashes out expensive treats such as massages.

Michelle Obama wearing gold and diamond bracelets worth $42,150 at DNC fundraiser (Sept. 2011)

MIAMI — Florida U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has signed onto a new effort to repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. The bill’s sponsor, Brooklyn Democrat U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, says Ros-Lehtinen is the first Republican to do so. (…)

Under current law, the federal government recognizes only marriages between men and women.(…)

Nadler filed it in March. Ros-Lehtinen became the 125th co-sponsor Friday. Ros-Lehtinen is chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

A prominent Fla Republican wants federal govt to recognize same-sex marriage St. Petersburg Times SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, is the first Republican to co-sponsor a bill to repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Steve Rothaus: Eight years ago, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, said she was slowly becoming a gay-rights advocate but wasn’t ready to accept same-sex married couples. “I haven’t evolved to that state yet,” she told The Miami Herald in 2003. “But God isn’t done with me.” Friday, several national gay-rights groups announced that Ros-Lehtinen had become the first Republican in Congress to co-sponsor the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal a 1996 law that prevents the federal government from recognizing married gay couples. “I have had the opportunity to speak with so many members of our community on both sides of the issue of marriage equality and, after much soul-searching, have concluded that it is time for our laws to better reflect the principles of equality that serve the better angels of our nature,” Ros-Lehtinen told The Herald on Friday. “I’m a pro-life, gay rights advocate so I manage to upset many folks at any given time!” Ros-Lehtinen was among 342 ‘yes’ votes for the ’96 Defense of Marriage Act. Now, she has become the 124th co-sponsor of the bill to repeal it. Ros-Lehtinen, a congresswoman since 1989 and married to former U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen, has said she didn’t teach their children about gay rights – she learned from them. By 2003, Ros-Lehtinen had already co-sponsored or supported a federal hate-crimes bill that protects gays from federal employment discrimination and laws that increased funding for HIV/AIDS prevention. In 2005, she bucked Republican Party leadership and joined 70 Democrats in supporting repeal of the military gay ban. The next year, Ros-Lehtinen said she was one of 27 Republicans who voted against a federal constitutional amendment on gay marriage. During summer 2008, Ros-Lehtinen told Miami gay Republicans that she opposed Florida’s Amendment 2, which passed the following November and banned gay marriages, civil unions and state-recognized domestic partnerships. Later, she learned that daughter Amanda had come out as a transgender man named Rodrigo. In 2010, gay rights groups Equality Florida and SAVE Dade honored Ros-Lehtinen with awards at their annual Miami-Dade County receptions. This May at the SAVE Dade gala, she held a reception for gay, bisexual and transgender Republicans. “The goal of equality is an important one and has no party labels, “ Ros-Lehtinen said in May.

Source: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/prominent-fla-republican-wants-federal-govt-recognize-same-sex-marriage

Michelle Obama dazzled in true First Lady style at the DNC fundraiser this week, her left wrist dripping with diamonds as she supported her husband at the party event.

In total, she sported an astonishing $42,150 worth of bracelets to the New York Democratic Party dinner.

Designed by Texas-based jeweller, Katie Decker, the three white gold cuffs glittered and sparkled, catching the spotlight as she spoke to the high-powered audience.

The First Lady, 47, chose to wear Miss Decker’s Lotus cuff, with 2.9 carats of diamonds, costing $15,000, the Gothic cuff with 2.17 carats of diamonds, costing $15,350, and the $11,800 Quatrefoil bracelet with 1.73 carats of diamonds to the Gotham Hall event.

It’s hard to believe Miami-Dade County is still debating commissioners’ discretionary spending.

It’s hard to believe, because it’s impossible to understand why these no-rules accounts still exist. And it’s even more difficult to comprehend why $3 million in office budgets is currently stockpiled, saved for rainy days ranging from worthy causes to pet projects.

Commissioners get $814,000 individual office budgets. But as the Miami Herald reported Sunday, they are not required to use the resources strictly for office expenses such as employee salaries, the electric bill or supplies. So even though the infamous “Discretionary Reserve” – better known as “the commission slush fund” – was eliminated two years ago, commissioners still have a fat pile of money they can give to whomever they wish, with limited oversight.

Slush funds were eliminated from one account and permitted in another. Sounds like a shell game.
That means Bruno Barreiro can spend $18,000 busing seniors to District 5 events, without ever explaining who got a ride where. What criteria were used to determine who received backpacks from Commissioner Sally Heyman’s $5,000 book bag allotment?

What’s worse: Commissioners are permitted – by county statute – to carry over unused money. That must come in handy at election time. It’s no wonder that it has historically been difficult, if not impossible, to unseat an incumbent commissioner.

Right now Heyman has $800,000 stashed away. Jose “Pepe” Diaz is sitting on $461,000, Bruno Barreiro has $361,000, and Dennis Moss $354,000.

That has to stop.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez (a former commissioner who never said No to these monies) says he’s going to change the rules. Facing a $400 million deficit, the county should apply a “use it or lose it” rule and put tight controls on discretionary spending.

But it’s the County Commission that gets to decide its own spending.

A recent analysis showed about nine percent of their office budgets are spent this way, with little fiscal control. (…)

Despite steep spending cuts and looming layoffs, Miami-Dade County commissioners continue to stockpile cash that they spend with few restrictions and scant oversight.

Commissioner Sally Heyman is sitting on $804,000 in unspent money, Jose “Pepe” Diaz controls $461,000, Bruno Barreiro has $361,000 and Dennis Moss $354,000. Taken together, commissioners have more than $3 million in surplus taxpayer funds set aside for their personal spending whims.

The money comes from the commissioners’ individual office budgets, which are $814,000 each per year, but aren’t required to be used solely for office expenses such as staff salaries or paper and pens. Instead, the funds are regularly doled out by individual commissioners to favored groups within their districts with virtually no checks or balances; allocations are subject to a perfunctory vote at the end of commission meetings and are rarely denied.

Critics deride the money as slush funds, a stash of political pork that commissioners pass out to curry favor with constituents. Commissioners defend the practice, declaring they best know how money should be spent in their district, and that the funds support good causes.

“If that’s not illegal, it should be,’’ said Dominic Calabro, president and CEO of Florida Tax Watch, a Tallahassee-based government watchdog group, who called the free spending “ripe for mischief” and “blatantly wrong.”

In recent years, commissioners made sure they kept firm control of the taxpayer-funded bounty: They passed an ordinance in 2007 mandating that each commissioner gets to carry over unspent funds at the end of the year, even as they are given a fresh, fully funded office budget for the new fiscal year. The ability to roll over surplus money allows commissioners to build a mountain of cash that can be handed out before an upcoming election.

Now, recently elected Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who, as a commissioner, defended the use of discretionary dollars — is saying he will put an end to the practice.

‘NEEDS TO STOP’

In September, when commissioners pass a new budget for the coming year, Gimenez said he will ask for a law change to stop commissioners from spending office funds on nonoffice uses, and eliminate their ability to carry over unspent funds into a new year.

“The practice of discretionary funding, it needs to stop,” Gimenez said. “You can fund services through a normal budget process.”

Two years ago, a Palm Beach County grand jury — charged with addressing a “crisis of trust in public governance” after a string of public corruption convictions — called for a slate of reforms. Topping the list: ending county commissioners’ discretionary funds.

The report said most of the money went to laudable efforts, including worthwhile community groups and nonprofits, but the process of commissioners individually handing out the funds smacked of unseemly political patronage that “at a minimum, politicized the manner of funding” and created a negative effect “in both fact and perception.”

The issue is not necessarily who the money is given to, but how it is given out, said Calabro of Florida Tax Watch. “It should be part of a competitive, transparent, accountable funding process that is reviewed by all commissioners,” he said.

Palm Beach County commissioners discontinued the practice. Broward County commissioners aren’t provided discretionary funds.

Yet Miami-Dade County elected officials have continued the practice, and some commissioners are already signaling they will fight a change.

Sally Heyman, whose district includes Aventura and Bal Harbour, said she should be able to continue steering office funds to nonoffice uses at her discretion. If not, she said, nonprofits are “not going to be getting anything at all. The money wouldn’t be available.”

Barreiro said the use of office funds for nonoffice discretionary purposes is “done to benefit the community. Commissioners each fund programs in our areas.”

The commissioner, whose district includes Miami Beach and Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, defended his hefty carry-over funds, saying they illustrate his frugality. “One reason I have been saving is I am looking forward to improving the computer system in my office,” he said. “You know, the computers become outdated quickly.”

BIGGEST SPENDER

This biggest spender this year: Commissioner Diaz, who handed out $227,505 of office funds to constituent groups. Diaz was on vacation and unavailable for comment, his office said Friday.

The debate about how commissioners can use their office funds is not new.

Two years ago, amid increased scrutiny of the practice, two other sources of discretionary funding were zeroed out. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez axed the commissioners’ “Discretionary Reserve” and “County Services Reserve” accounts, eliminating $400,000 in funds per commissioner that could be doled out with few restrictions. Those discretionary funds were in addition to the office funds. With those gone, commissioners have turned to their handsome “office” budgets. “When flagged, they have been clever about calling it something else. It is no longer a ‘discretionary’ fund but is buried in the office budget,” said Douglas Halsey, a lawyer with White & Case, which is taking a hard look at Miami-Dade discretionary spending on its own on a pro bono basis.

“It is clear that county commissioners have for years enjoyed being able to use taxpayer dollars for patronage purposes.”

As Gimenez is pledging to end discretionary funding and require surplus monies be returned to the general fund, some commissioners may take no chances and begin rapidly unloading their largess before the fiscal year runs out Sept. 30. Commissioners are in recess for August and return in September.

Last week, county commissioners closed their meeting by taking turns individually doling out, in rapid fire, nearly $100,000 in office funds.

Barreiro handed $18,000 to American Coach Lines to hire the bus company to transport seniors in his district to holiday parties later this year. Heyman doled out $10,000 to the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.

Commissioner Audrey Edmonson allocated nearly $5,000 toward backpacks for the “District 3 Annual Back-to-School event.” Commissioner Barbara Jordan allocated $235.65 for expenses “related to District 1’s Annual Senior Valentine’s Day Dance.”

All the spending raises a looming question: If commissioners can save so much of their office fund for future years or spend it on nonoffice expenses, why do they get such a big office budget?

As part of a countywide budget-cutback totaling some $400 million, Gimenez has proposed cutting the Board of County Commissioners’ overall budget by 10 percent. But there are other departments under commission control, including the Office of Protocol, the commission auditor and Intergovernmental Relations.

As a result, commissioners could choose to slash those budgets while keeping their individual office budgets at current levels .

(…)

Khurrum Wahid is the director of CVA according to the Florida Dept. of State:
CVA Incorporation Documents (PDF)
(http://www.sunbiz.org/pdf/30740933.pdf) Wahid is Lawyer to People Charged with Terrorism Khurrum Wahid, a South Florida attorney, defended Ahmed Omar Abu Ali who was “sentenced to 30 years in prison for joining al-Qaeda and conspiracy to assassinate U.S. President George W. Bush.”
(LIFE magazine, March 29, 2006: http://www.life.com/image/57211580) Link to radical islamics?
RedCounty.com reported about “Kharrum Wahid of CVA-PAC and Emerge USA and their ties to CAIR/HAMAS” and the “MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD FRONT GROUPS like the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) which is designated as a Co-Conspirator in the largest terrorism case in U.S. History.”
(http://www.redcounty.com/content/article-hotline-muslims-after-911-offering-pro-bono-services-now-politico-kharrum-wahid-appe?quicktabs_6=1)

More Gimenez’s endorsements here

Filed under: Miami, People ]]> http://americatimes.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/cva-pac-endorses-carlos-gimenez-cvas-director-is-lawyer-of-people-charged-with-terrorism/feed/ 0 americatimes CVA PAC endorsedCarlosGimenez Khurrum Wahid's group, CVA PAC, endorsed Carlos Gimenez, mayoral candidate for Miami-Dade County